---
title: The two ladies were at the moment deep in conversation with Prince A… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The two ladies were at the moment deep in conversation with Prince Alphege, and hearing a knocking so late at night begged him to keep out of sight for a time. Who acts: two ladies, hearing. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), part 2, with its dependency tre
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Glass Mountain(16), part 2, sentence 31

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The two ladies were at the moment deep in conversation with Prince Alphege, and hearing a knocking so late at night begged him to keep out of sight for a time.

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**Who acts:** two ladies, hearing · **What happens:** be, hear, beg, keep out · **To what, where:** conversation, knocking, King, sight · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (two ladies, hearing), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg640:23:31
# text = The two ladies were at the moment deep in conversation with Prince Alphege, and hearing a knocking so late at night begged him to keep out of sight for a time.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	ladies	lady	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	deep	deep	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	conversation	conversation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
13	Alphege	Alphege	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
16	hearing	hear	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	csubj	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	knocking	knocking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	late	late	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
23	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
27	out	out	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
30	for	for	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the two ladies |  |  | conversation with Prince | at the moment |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **hear** | gerund |  | a knocking |  |  | night | late *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer knocking=Stimulus |
| 3 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | hearing |  | King |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **keep out** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | hearing *not said here* | sight |  |  | time |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sight=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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